3/19/2011

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu ) was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bai (Li Bo), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.

Although initially he was little known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" .

Most of what is known of Du Fu’s life comes from his poems.

.... when he learned of the death of his youngest child, he turned to the suffering of others in his poetry instead of dwelling upon his own misfortunes.
Du Fu wrote:

Brooding on what I have lived through,
if even I know such suffering,
the common man must surely
be rattled by the winds.

In 760, he arrived in Chengdu.
Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence.

Du Fu (also known as Tu Fu) wrote in the High Tang period. His work is very diverse, but his most characteristic poems are autobiographical and historical, recording the effects of war on his own life.
Each poem indexed below appears in characters, pinyin, gloss and English translation; they are grouped chronologically according to the main periods of Du Fu's life. Alternatively, the English translations are collected.